312 NATATORES. 



sometimes confounded, even in actual observation, with the 

 one next to be mentioned.* 



THE BEAN GOOSE, OR SMALLER WILD GOOSE (Anser segetum). 



This species is the wild goose of the more northerly parts 

 of the country, and it probably breeds in the secluded marshes 

 of some of the islands, and even on the mainland in the north 

 of Scotland. It is a more active and discursive species than 

 the former, ranging more freely and extensively over the 

 country, though far more abundant in the northern parts 

 than in the southern. 



It is an inch or two shorter in the body, and an inch 

 shorter in the wings, than the grey goose, but a thrrd less in 

 weight, seldom exceeding six pounds. Its colours in general 

 appearance are also different. The legs and miadle part of 

 the bill are orange ; but the base of the bill, which is flesh- 

 coloured in the other, and the nail, or borderefl tip of the 

 bill, and the claws, which are whitish in the other, are black 

 in this species. The irides are brown, while tl?e others are 

 grey ; the grey on the upper part has a brownish tinge, and 

 the feathers on the wing-coverts have the margins paler ; the 

 rump is dusky ; the quills dusky black, margined with grey 

 on the outer webs, and the secondaries grey, nargined with 

 black ; the forehead over the bill is partially marked with 

 white ; the throat and breast, as far as the legs, pale brownish 

 grey, and the rest of the under part white. 



These birds arrive in the autumn, range lery generally 

 over the country, frequenting the pools in ths moors, and 

 occasionally the fields of autumn wheat, on which they com- 

 monly commit considerable ravages. They fh in the same 

 manner as the grey species ; and numerous fights of them 

 are seen moving southward over the central par,s of Scotland 

 in the early part of the winter ; and many of the latest 

 * This is the Anser cinereus of Meyer. 



